State Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, addresses people who attended a news conference and rally at Portland City Hall on Thursday to speak out against the proposed closing of the India Street Public Health Center. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

More than 40 patients, advocates, state lawmakers and others at a downtown rally Thursday urged the Portland City Council to fully fund the India Street health clinic for at least one more year.

City Manager Jon Jennings has proposed closing the city-run clinic and moving services and patients to the Portland Community Health Center, an independent nonprofit clinic on Park Avenue.

State Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, addresses people who attended a news conference and rally at Portland City Hall on Thursday to speak out against the proposed closing of the India Street Public Health Center. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

But speakers at the rally in front of City Hall, including three candidates running for a Maine Senate seat, said the city should expand access to health care, not limit it.

“Let’s not close the India Street clinic,” state Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, said to loud applause. “Let’s have a conversation about expanding it.”

Russell, whose district includes the clinic, is running for the state Senate’s District 27 seat, which covers the peninsula, islands and Back Cove. Two other candidates, Peaks Island resident Chuck Radis and Rep. Ben Chipman, also spoke at the rally.

The proposal to close the India Street clinic, which provides services for HIV-positive patients, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and a needle exchange program, has emerged as the most contested component of the proposed $236 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The proposal would reorganize several city departments in an effort to refocus municipal government on core services such as maintaining roads and sidewalks.

The City Council’s Finance Committee voted unanimously on April 21 to endorse the proposed budget with only a few modifications that included extending the time line for winding down services at the India Street clinic.

Backers of the proposal argue that Portland Community Health Center is better equipped to provide clinical services and that only 11 percent of municipalities in the U.S. still provide direct medical care. They say moving clinical services to the federally qualified health center, which the city helped create in 2007, has always been the plan. The independently-run clinic would also receive higher MaineCare and Medicare reimbursements, making it more fiscally sustainable.

Mayor Ethan Strimling on Monday surprised his fellow councilors by strongly criticizing the closure plan and questioning whether the city should be putting “public works over preventive health” and “serving people or pavement.” Virtually every other councilor fired back at Strimling, saying he had unfairly criticized city staff and Jennings and misrepresented the budget.

Supporters at the rally Thursday said the city-run clinic, which includes several separate programs under one roof, serves not only vulnerable patients such as homeless people, drug addicts and members of the LGBT community, but also young professionals without primary care doctors and people without insurance who work in the service industry.

“I am here telling my story because India Street is vital to the community,” said David Timm, who was diagnosed HIV-positive in 2004. Six months after starting treatment, his HIV was undetectable, he said. He continues to receive primary care there and can call his doctor anytime. “I do owe them my life. To the city of Portland, I urge you not to close this facility.”

South Portland resident Karine Odlin commended the clinic for its outreach to commercial fishermen. Odlin, who comes from a fishing family, said many fishermen struggling with opioid and heroin addiction have come to trust the clinic and staff as a safe place to get clean needles and access to other services.

“Fishermen are an independent lot and quite honestly they have been slow to acknowledge the problem,” Odlin said.

Others said details were lacking about where and how services would be offered by the Portland Community Health Center.

Marcia Goldenberg, a professor at the University of Southern Maine who was a nurse at India Street from 1999 to 2013, said the city needs to explain whether city staff will be hired at the clinic, whether related services would be provided under one roof, and how the city would ensure that the quality of care will not be sacrificed.

“These remain unanswered questions and we want answers,” she said.

Thursday’s rally, organized by Joey Brunelle, who knows several patients who use the city clinic, was the first of two leading up to a public hearing Monday. The Southern Maine Workers Center, a coalition of labor unions, as well as the Homeless Solidarity Project, clinic clients and volunteers, are planning a rally at 1 p.m. Sunday in Lincoln Park. And an online petition to save the clinic was launched by Timm on Tuesday night. As of Thursday morning, it had over 1,200 signatories.

The City Council public hearing is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday in council chambers. The council is due to vote on the budget on May 16.

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THanks for reporting on this Randy. Just a correction for you and everyone else, Southern Maine Workers Center is an ally in this effort, they are not organizing the rally. A loose network of stakeholders are organizing under the banner “Save India Street Public Health.”

Homeless Solidarity Project has been involved for some time now, and we have only recently invited SMWC to participate, their role is one of support, not leadership in this fight. They respect the leadership of those on the front lines of this issue, those who will be most effected.

THanks again! Hope you can be at the rally and report on that! Be well!

gadfly371

Yeah, be well. What does the solidarity mean? Fight to kerp the freebies?

rightwinga

Raise Portland taxes to pay for it and expand it to triple the size! Wouldn’t that be great?…plus…it could all be free to those who use it! Wouldn’t that be great? Free…Free…FREEE!

Baxter

40 people!!!! whhhoooa….

MovingForwardMaine

LOL, and can you believe Diane Russell was there for the cameras? Since she always seems to support the creation and expansion of FREE stuff and entitlement programs, has she officially registered as a Socialist yet? I’ll bet Bernie would love to have her in his campaign.

shooter777

Go to her Facebook and there she is with Bernie. Two moonbats

gadfly371

Have to vote her out!

shooter777

That is because she cannot relate to people who actually WORK for a living, not handouts. She could not carry on an intelligent conversation with a business owner. However she was among her people yesterday and with this a growing part of Portland, she is simply cultivating potential voters ( if straight, if Portland moves the polls to India St) to make it easier for them to vote.

MovingForwardMaine

If she was rolling a recreational joint with someone, they might be able to have a nice “wow man, this is some great recreational stuff” kind of talk.

mycountry

She is one of his foremost advocates. These people care less about controlling cost to tax payers and more about false comfort for the client. It appears that the city council and administration carefully studied and came to the conclusion that consolidation of clinical services would save Portland and those paying the tax bill a considerable amount of tax dollars next year and beyond while the Diane Russell’s of the state care less about cost. Her attitude appears to be make the stuff free and easy for all and don’t require any effort on the part of these poor downtrodden recipients.

shooter777

She is from the right city where costs are never a problem. This city breeds these advocates..

MovingForwardMaine

That’s exactly true, but has Diane ever admitted she’s a socialist like Bernie? I don’t agree with him on lots of things, but do appreciate his honesty about being a socialist… which lots of progressives are afraid to admit.

shooter777

And 3 wanna be politicians who had nothing to do on a Thursday, a workday for most

Lux-lives

I understand that many people might feel like this is a hand out to people, but I think that there are many people in Portland who get their health care from this facility. A little bit of preventative care represents a huge savings when balanced against the cost of emergency care due to ignoring routine medical services.

Pinetree North

The patients with HIV are being swapped to another facility in 2017. Nobody is being cut off from care.

Lux-lives

Maybe so maybe not. I think the city is looking to balance this years budget not making sure that the people have medical care.

MovingForwardMaine

It has been reported many times that the same services will be available for the same people at the other facility, so why not give it a try?

gadfly371

It’s not the city’s job to provide health care.Why is that so difficult to understand?

KraziJoe

No, but it’s in their best interest to.

shooter777

And the city is doing exactly as you note but 2 miles away

Jeffrey W. Judkins

More like a mile. Park Ave. Clinic is on the corner of Park & Brighton near Pickle Park.

KraziJoe

So a 30 minute walk, or 5 minute taxi ride, or 30 minute bus ride…

shooter777

Exactly… it s FREE. You think the health care people ought to travel to them? What else do they have to do? They are not cutting available services. Businesses change locations all the time. In fact these types ought to be looking annually for cheaper space.

Lux-lives

Also I’m pretty sure that most “non-profits” in name actually bank mad bucks while cheating the tax man.

shooter777

Yesterday the Narcan debate. Today free, clean needles. City appears to have its priorities together. Wouldn’t we all love to call our doctor anytime we want? And once again why is it so hard for these people to commute from India Street to Park Ave? Is it time constraints for the homeless, the not-at-sea fisherman, the junkies looking for clean needles? Next step is to distribute ‘ready to shoot up’ needles, sort of like dinners on the go, one stop shopping, maybe toss in a dose of Narcan for dessert!

John Selleck

This concept isn’t far off. In Mass they are considering “safe zones” where junkies can shoot up under “supervision” in case they over dose. Wonder which Harvard PHD thought of this one?

trisailer

I don’t think there is going to be any one solution to the epidemic, but it starts with minimizing the impact on societies. Portugal decriminalized all substances 12 years ago and addiction rates have come down while crime is virtually eliminated. They also supply safe zones.

Some people are willing to think outside the box and look for solutions, while others seek the same draconian approaches than have failed so many times in the past.

Thailand set the police loose on drug dealers and about 3500 were executed without trial. Turns out not all were actual dealers, many were political.

gadfly371

These clowns show up whenever they think they might lose free services. Jennings is right. I hope he and the council show some backbone and close the clinic.

Jeffrey W. Judkins

Always the same faces.

SPLAX

This reminds me of the abortion issue with Planned Parenthood, their only service is providing abortions with tax dollars; on this issue India St. Clinic services provide only HIV and a needle exchange program for free. Keep India St Clinic Opened – with tax dollars and free(or sliding scale) for the people that use these services.

John Selleck

Close the clinic. More layabouts who want free stuff. Feel the burn.

Freida11

Seeing that many people who signed their petition were from outside of Portland, I’m wondering how many supporters at this rally – or at the one planned for May 1 are Portland residents. The rest, I hope are putting their money where their mouths are, and donating to Portland public health efforts. To come here and say we should spend our money on one clinic when the other clinic will serve the needs just as well – and won’t need our money seems a bit outrageous.

PortlandGenXer

What a waste of time. The Republicans are in control, and if you’re not white, middle class, then they have no time for you. They’d prefer you to die in the streets, but please… choose a back alley, so they don’t actually have to see you.

Brennan Huff

Last I looked the democrats control the Peoples Republic of Portland. And your calling Portland Community Health Center a back alley?